The present invention relates to protective headgear, specifically football helmets. To protect a player from skull fractures and to minimize the occurrence of head and scalp lacerations, typical football helmets are comprised of a rigid shell that contains a plurality of energy-absorbing pads. A wide variety of pads and pad configurations have been developed in the prior art in an effort to reduce the potential for injury by attenuating some translational energy of the force of an impact to the helmet. More recently, helmet manufacturers have also begun to incorporate inflatable bladders or liners into the helmets. Such liners are interposed between the padding in the helmet and provide for further attenuation of the translational energy associated with the force of an impact to the helmet. Because the liners can often be inflated while the helmet is being worn, they also allow for a more snug and personalized fit.
Prior art liners, however, have also presented some problems. For example, prior art liners are typically disposed toward the top portion of the helmet. As a result, when the liner is inflated, the helmet often rises up on the head. Also, with the liner disposed toward the top of the helmet, the helmet may not fit snugly around the periphery of the wearer's head.
A second problem is non-uniform inflation of the liner wherein some portions of the liner may be over-inflated whereas others are under-inflated. Such non-uniform inflation of the liner can adversely affect the fit of the helmet and the protection it provides. In prior art helmets, it is especially common for the portion of the liner adjacent the inflating valve to over-inflate and bulge out.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a protective helmet that includes an inflatable liner and snugly fits on the wearer's head.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a protective helmet that includes an inflatable liner and does not rise up on the wearer's head when the liner is inflated.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a protective helmet with an inflatable liner that uniformly inflates.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon a reading of the following description along with the appended drawings.